


Claire's Nightmare

by KaytiKitty



Series: TUA One-Shots [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Klaus is a great uncle, Nightmares, Sewing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 17:51:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18721999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaytiKitty/pseuds/KaytiKitty
Summary: When Claire stays with her mother and her family she wakes up one night from a nightmare. It's a good thing her Uncle Klaus is always there for her.





	Claire's Nightmare

It's four fifty-three in the morning. Claire is laying in her mother's room, her eyes wide open and tear tracks dried on her face. Alison is on an air mattress across from her daughter, peacefully asleep, unaware that twenty minutes earlier her daughter had awakened from a nightmare. 

    The house was eerily quiet, usually at least one of her uncles would be awake. Uncle Five liked to stay up really late to do math, Uncle Diego listened to police news, and Uncle Klaus would have nightmares. Worse nightmares then the one Claire just had. 

    Claire felt bad. Her aunt and uncles had reasons to have nightmares and be scared, Claire was just being dramatic. She knew that but as the silence seemed to grow louder the young girl slipped out of bed. 

    On her way to the bathroom she heard humming. It wasn't soft or musical like her mom's but it was sporadic and slightly hysterical. Claire was tempted to just run into the bathroom and lock the door but what if someone was hurt or scared? 

    Claire tentatively turned the corner to see a figure curled up by a window. Her Uncle Klaus had his knees to his chest, ankles crossed and his hands were covering his ears. His eyes were closed tightly. "Uncle Klaus?" 

    The question got no response from her living uncle, but the dead one played attention to her at least. Uncle Klaus quickly snapped his head up to stare at what Claire knew was her Uncle Ben. 

     "Uncle Klaus?" She asked again, softer this time. He looked towards her, his smile was shaky and his eyes were bloodshot. 

       "What are you doing out of bed, Liebling?" Klaus asked. Claire shuffled her feet and looked down in embarrassment. Her uncle was actually scared and she was just worrying over a stupid dream. 

        "It's nothing, Unlce Klaus," Claire lied. She didn't want to push her problems onto her uncle. Not when he had his own. 

        Klaus knew she was lying, Ben did too if his growing concerns were any indications. Instead of calling the little girl out Klaus just smiled and held his arms open. "I could use a big hug." 

        Claire threw herself into her uncle's arms and buried her head in his shoulder. Klaus rocked side to side, making his niece giggle quietly. "You know what else I could use?" 

       Claire looked at her uncle, the question forming on her lips. "What?" Claire couldn't help the warm feeling of excitement when her uncle sent her a mischievous grin and leaned into her ear. 

      "I could use a cookie," Klaus whispered as if it were a scandalous affair. "But, alas, we cannot eat a cookie while sitting in the hallway. Whatever will we do?" 

      Claire could barely contain her excitement as she giggled. "Go to the kitchen, Silly!"

       Ben laughed at his brother's dramatic display of widening his eyes and standing up while spinning the girl around. "What a genius little human you are!" 

     Ben followed behind the two as Klaus flounced downstairs, carrying an excited Claire on his shoulder. For once Ben wasn't worried about Klaus slipping or falling or hurting himself. He was to focused on making Claire happy, and keeping her from falling, to miss a step. 

      Each step provided a new opportunity for Klaus to bounce or spin which made Claire giggled harder. They were running a high risk of waking Pogo or Grace up, but none of the three could bring themselves to care. 

      At the bottom of the stairs, Klaus lifted Claire up over his head and set her down in front of him. Claire turned to grin at him. "Cookies?" 

      Klaus didn't bother to hold back his giggle. "Cookies," he confirmed. Claire and him practically raced to the kitchen, flipping all the lights on as they went. 

     Claire claimed a chair at the counter top as Klaus brought over the tray of cookies Grace had made earlier. Claire clapped quietly and did a happy dance in her chair. Klaus joined her and soon they were both wiggling their shoulders with their hands waving in the air. 

    After settling down Klaus and Claire each picked a cookie. One cookie each as Ben reminded, not that Klaus planned to let the child eat an entire tray of cookies at five in the morning. Ben didn't exactly trust him on that. 

    "Alright, Little One, you going to tell us why you're awake at five in the am?" Klaus asked. He tried not to sound pushy but he did want to know if she wasn't feeling well. 

    Claire just shrugged and looked at the table. "I had a bad dream. That's all. Sorry I bothered you, Uncle Klaus and Uncle Ben." 

    Klaus reached out and took her hand. "You didn't bother us, Claire. We all have nightmares and it's okay to be scared. I have nightmares sometimes too."

     "What do you do when you have nightmares?" Claire asked and she looked up at Klaus with those big innocent child's eyes. 

     "I knit. I like to make scarves and blankets for myself," Klaus said. It was true nowadays with Klaus being sober. 

"How do you knit?"

Klaus grinned at the curiosity in his young niece's eyes. "How about I teach you?" 

Three hours later Alison woke up to an empty room. Logically she knew Claire, most likely, wasn't hurt but she still panicked. The panic only increased as she couldn't find her daughter in the bathrooms or the kitchen, or the living room. 

She rushed into her siblings rooms, quickly and not very carefully causing them all to wake up. She threw the door to Klaus' room open and it hit the wall with a bang. She stopped dead at the sight inside. 

Her brother and her daughter were passed out on the floor, yarn spread out around them and in Claire's hands was a half-finished sparkly pink scarf.


End file.
